Former Absa workers lose authorized battle in Sh300m pay row

Absa head workplace in Westlands, Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NMG

By SAM KIPLAGAT
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Abstract

• Former staff of Absa Kenya have misplaced a bid to maneuver to the Supreme Court docket to problem the reversal of a Sh300 million exit package deal following their retrenchment 10 years in the past.
• A bench of 5 judges of the Supreme Court docket dismissed the case by the 105 former staff, saying there was no challenge of constitutional controversy, which was argued earlier than each the Excessive Court docket and Court docket of Attraction, requiring interpretation of the apex court docket.

Former staff of Absa Kenya have misplaced a bid to maneuver to the Supreme Court docket to problem the reversal of a Sh300 million exit package deal following their retrenchment 10 years in the past.

A bench of 5 judges of the Supreme Court docket dismissed the case by the 105 former staff, saying there was no challenge of constitutional controversy, which was argued earlier than each the Excessive Court docket and Court docket of Attraction, requiring interpretation of the apex court docket.

The previous staff led Agnes Wachu Wamae sued the lender, searching for the re-evaluation of their exit packages after being declared redundant in 2011. They got Sh301.8 million by the Employment and Labour Relations Court docket (ELRC) just for the Court docket of Attraction to overturn the quantity.

The retirees then sought to be allowed by Supreme Court docket to problem the choice, arguing that there conflicting choices of the Court docket of Attraction on related points that require the Supreme Court docket’s last settlement, as a matter of public curiosity. The financial institution opposed the applying.

“Making use of this take a look at to the matter below our assessment, we entertain little doubt that the Attraction doesn’t meet the situations articulated in these authorities.

“From ELRC to the appellate court docket, not a single query on the Structure was pleaded, canvassed and decided. Certainly, no particular constitutional provisions had been offered for interpretation or software,” mentioned the judges led by Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu.

Within the round dated December 2010, the financial institution’s managing director knowledgeable these to be let go that the transfer was “as a result of strain on margins, and the financial institution had launched into a value assessment train reviewing all key price gadgets, together with workers prices.”

After being declared redundant, the retirees by way of Titus Koceyo sued the financial institution saying every of them was to get severance pay based mostly on their wage and size of service.

They argued that though the termination was inside the provisions of the Employment Act on redundancy, they accepted the provide believing the financial institution would compute their advantages correctly below the Act.

The lawyer argued that the employer was required to pay every worker declared redundant 15 days wage for every year served and this, it was submitted, is a primary minimal in regulation.

Their bid was profitable and the labour court docket choose agreed that they had been entitled to greater than what they obtained. The financial institution, nevertheless, appealed and three judges of the appellate court docket overturned the choice faulting the labour court docket choose over the calculations.